Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

by Professor Hoffmann

The Rabbit Trick.—The performer comes forward to the audience, and borrows a hat. He asks whether it is empty, and is answered that it is; but he, notwithstanding, finds something in it, which the owner is requested to take out. The article in question proves to be an egg. No sooner has this been removed, than the performer discovers that there is still something in the hat, and immediately produces therefrom a live rabbit, quickly followed by a second. Not knowing what other use to make of these, he proposes to pass one of them into the other. The audience decide which is to be the victim, and the performer, placing them side by side on the table, proceeds to roll them together, when one is found to have vanished, nobody knows when or how; but the theory is that it has been swallowed by the remaining rabbit, to the (imaginary) increased fatness of which the performer draws special attention.

Having thus passed one rabbit into the other, the next step is to get it out again. To do this the performer calls for some bran, and his assistant immediately brings forward, and places on a table or chair, a huge glass goblet, twelve inches or thereabouts in height, filled to the brim with that commodity. The performer takes the borrowed hat, and (after showing that it is empty) places it mouth upwards upon another table, so as to be at some considerable distance from the goblet of bran. He then places a brass cover over the glass, first, however, taking up and scattering a handful of the bran to prove its genuineness. Taking the surviving rabbit, and holding it by the ears above the covered goblet, he orders the one swallowed to pass from it into the glass, at the same time stroking it down with the disengaged hand, as though to facilitate the process. He remarks, “You must excuse the comparative slowness of the operation, ladies and gentlemen, but the fact is, the second rabbit passes downwards in an impalpable powder, and, if I were not to take sufficient time, we might find that a leg or an ear had been omitted in the process, and the restored rabbit would be a cripple for life. I think we are pretty safe by this time, however. Thank you, Bunny; I need not trouble you any more.” So saying, he releases the visible rabbit, and on taking off the cover the bran is found to have disappeared, and the missing rabbit to have taken its place in the goblet; while on turning over the borrowed hat the vanished bran pours from it.

The reader who has duly followed our descriptions of the appliances employed in the magic art will have little difficulty in solving the riddle of this trick. The performer first comes forward with an egg palmed in one hand, and with a small rabbit in an inner breast-pocket on each side of his coat (see page [9]). The first step is the pretended finding of something (it is not stated what) in the hat. The owner is requested to take it out, and while all eyes are naturally turned to see what the article may prove to be, the performer, without apparent intention, presses the mouth of the hat with both hands to his breast, and tilts one of the rabbits into it. This is next produced, and in placing it on the ground at his feet, the performer brings the second rabbit in the same manner into the hat. When he undertakes to pass the one rabbit into the other, he places both upon the table which contains the rabbit-trap, and, standing sideways to the audience, pushes the hindmost, under cover of the other, through the trap. This particular rabbit is not again produced, the rabbit in the “bran glass,” which has already been explained (see page [383]), being another as much like it as possible. It only remains to explain how the bran comes into the borrowed hat. This is effected by having a black alpaca bag filled with bran in one of the profondes or under the waistcoat of the performer. This bag is introduced into the hat after the manner of the goblets (see page [308]), and the bran having been allowed to run out, the bag is rolled up in the palm, and so removed, the bran remaining, to be produced in due course.

It is obvious that the trick may be varied in many ways. The following is an effective modification:—A rabbit having been produced by natural or supernatural means, is placed on the principal table (close to the hinder edge), and temporarily covered with a borrowed hat, while the performer goes in search of a sheet of paper, which when obtained, he spreads upon a small side table. Lifting the hat slightly, he takes out the rabbit, and walking with it to the side table, rolls it up in the paper, making a somewhat bulky parcel. Coming forward with this to the audience, he turns toward the principal table, and saying, “Now, ladies and gentlemen, if you watch me very closely, you will see the rabbit fly out of the paper, and back to the hat.” He crushes the paper together between his hands, and tearing it, shows it empty, while on lifting the hat the rabbit is again found safely ensconced beneath it.

The ingenious reader will readily guess that duplicate rabbits are employed. One of them is placed under the hat, and remains there throughout the trick. A second, of similar appearance, is placed in a box or basket on the servante, immediately behind the hat. This box has no lid, but is pushed until wanted just within the interior of the table, the top of which prevents the rabbit making a premature appearance. The performer, slightly raising the hat, as though to take the rabbit from under it, lifts up this second rabbit, which the spectators naturally believe to be the same which they have already seen, and in apparently wrapping it in paper on the side table, presses it, under cover of the paper, through the rabbit trap, and screws up the ends of the paper (which should be rather stiff) in such manner as to make it appear that the animal is still inside it. The same trick may be performed with a pigeon with equally good effect, and considerably less difficulty.

The Fairy Star.—This is one of the most telling of stage card tricks. The performer, coming forward with a pack of cards, allows six to be chosen. His assistant meanwhile brings forward and places on a table a handsome gilt “star” on a stand. The performer, collecting the chosen cards, places them in his pistol, and fires them at the star, when, at the moment of the explosion, they are seen to attach themselves one to each of its points, as in [Fig. 283].

Fig. 283. Fig. 284.

The principal point to be explained is the construction of the star. Behind each “ray” is a moveable arm, working on a spring hinge at about two inches’ distance from the point, and carrying a spring clip at its outer end wherein to insert a card. (See [Fig. 284], representing a back view of the apparatus.) A card being placed in each of the clips, the six arms, with the cards attached to them, are folded down one by one behind the centre of the star, which is just large enough to conceal them. Each card, as folded, holds down the one which has preceded it. When the last card is folded down, the free end of a moveable button or lever at the top of the pillar on which the star rests is so turned as to press upon the arm which holds the card last folded, and thus to keep it and the five other cards preceding it in place. This button, however, is so arranged as to be instantly withdrawn upon an upward movement being communicated to a wire rod which passes up the centre of the pillar, and terminates in a flat disc of metal at its foot. The apparatus, thus prepared, is placed immediately over one of the pistons of the table. At the moment of firing the pistol the cord of the piston is pulled. The piston rises, pressing up the disc and wire rod, the button is withdrawn, and the arms, being thereby released, revert to their natural position, exhibiting a card upon each point of the star.

There are many little differences of detail between the “stars” of rival manufacturers, but the foregoing may be taken to represent the general principle of all. Some have the addition of a rose in the centre, which opens simultaneously with the appearance of the cards, and discloses a watch, borrowed a moment previously from one of the spectators.